Numerous chemical, spectral and X-ray methods are currently used in analytical chemistry for the quantitative analysis of inorganic materials. Method for determining individual elements can be found in periodicals issued by "Nauka" Publishing House in the series "Analytical Chemistry of Elements," for example, "Analytical Chemistry of Fluorine," Moscow, 1970; "Analytical Chemistry of Silicon," 1972; and "Analytical Chemistry of Phosphorus," Moscow, 1974.
Chemical methods of analysis have disadvantages, for example, in their specificity, i.e., their applicability in every particular case to the determination of one element only, and the laborious nature of the test procedures. Disadvantages of spectral methods include poor accuracy and insufficient sensitivity relative to certain elements. X-ray diffraction analysis methods have poor sensitivity and necessitate the use of sophisticated and expensive equipment.
Known in the art is a method for quantitative analysis of a chemical composition of an inorganic material or a method of high-temperature vacuum extraction for the determination of oxygen and carbon comprising dissolution of a sample of the inorganic material in a bath of a metal salt saturated with a reagent, which is carbon in the case of oxygen determination, and which is oxygen in the case of determination. Oxygen or carbon is extracted from the melt to the gas phase in the form of gaseous carbon monoxide formed in the melt via the reaction of oxygen of the material sample and the bath carbon (in the determination of oxygen) or carbon of the material sample and the bath oxygen (in the determination of carbon), followed by the quantitative determination of carbon monoxide in the gas phase (cf. Z. M. Turovtzeva, L. L. Kunin "Analysis of Gases in Metals," Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences Publishing House, 1959; Y. A. Carpov, K. Y. Natanson, coll. "Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Interaction of Gases with Liquid Metals," Moscow, "Nauka" Publishing House, 1974, pp. 182-185).
The above method makes it possible to carry-out the quantitative analysis of a broad range of inorganic materials. The sensitivity of the determination of oxygen or carbon is 10.sup.-4 to 10.sup.-5 %. The accuracy of the determination of said elements in concentrations within the range of from 10.sup.-4 to 10.sup.-5 % equal to 15-20%. A disadvantage of the high-temperature vacuum extraction method resides in its specificity, i.e., it can only be used for the determination of a single element in every particular case, as well as a limited range of the elements being determined. At present, this prior art method can be used only in the analytical chemistry of gaseous elements and carbon.